Stickiness. Her arms and legs are covered with it. She touches her face; the dark liquid runs down her cheeks. She stares at her hands. They are dripping with blood. She throws her head back and screams into the darkened heavens. But her cries are muffled by blankets of darkness. The blood becomes thick like oil, and in the sky greasy rainbows swirl together with the unending grief that tortures her soul. These shades of despair rain down upon her.
_____
Chapter One
Teal stands in front of a large steel door, its surface rusted and peeling. She digs inside her pocket for the small piece of paper with the access codes on it. She unfolds it, and begins punching the numbers into a key pad near the door.
The frigid air nips her skin as she pushes enter. A green light flicks to life on the pad, and Teal hears the door unlock. This is it. No second thoughts, no hesitation.
The door is aged, but surprisingly, it opens smoothly. A dimly lit hallway meets her eyes. The silence is unsettling. At its end there is a door—her nightmare is made real.
Teal stops short as she nears it. Her past promises echo back to her. Her mother…could this finally be it?
Teal pulls the door open, holding her breath. This is her defining moment. What lies inside this room could mean her salvation—or doom.
She enters the forgotten room—it is bare with fading white walls. In the center of the room lies a chest. Teal’s hairs stand on end as she approaches it. The chest is deep red—stained with blood. She kneels down and sees there is no way to open it. It is whole, with no break in its structure. Teal hears her hopes wail.
Studying the chest more closely, she finds something. There is a small oval shaped crystal embedded in the chest’s surface. It contains a dark liquid that is almost black, yet with a tint of deep crimson.
Teal reaches her hand out and lightly touches the hollow crystal. She immediately feels a strong sense of dread wash over her. But it is not due to the crystal.
“It’s not your fault,” comes an ominous voice from behind her. “I should have kept a closer eye on those idiots I call minions.”
Teal turns. Standing before her is tall man dressed in white, with untamed hair to match. His eyes are bloodshot and menacing, and he looks aged beyond death.
“Still,” he says, raising a silver pistol. “You must have been pretty determined to be able to find this place at all. Too bad it was in vain.”
Teal is speechless as she stares into the barrel of his gun. She has heard rumors, but she could never believe that this monster could be real. The Purger, they call him. A fitting name.
“Now step away from the chest and maybe I won’t kill you.”
Teal raises her hands above her head and backs way. The Purger grabs the chest from the floor and grips it tightly.
“Good little girl,” he says, adjusting it in his arms. “Now I’ll just have to find a new place to hide this.” But then his countenance changes. The Purger frowns. He takes his eyes off Teal for a brief moment to glance down at the chest. His eyes widen as he turns back to her.
“The filter,” he says, voice breaking.“What have you done with it?”
Teal stays calm. She lowers her hands down by her sides and allows the oval shaped crystal to drop out of her sleeve and into her curled fingers.
“You mean this?” she says hesitantly, raising it to eye level.
“Give it to me or have a healthy dose of lead,” he says seething, cocking his gun. Teal tries not to tremble. Her heart beats rapidly in her fear.She allows the small crystal to dangle from her fingertips.
“I’ll drop it,” she warns, keeping eye contact with the Purger.
He flinches.
“How did you know it could shatter?”
“You just told me.”
The Purger growls with frustration.
“Look, you brat,” he spits, stepping closer. “Just hand over the filter to me before you do something highly regrettable.”
Terra takes a step back and keeps the filter at her fingertips, ready to let it drop at any moment.
“I came here for my mother,” she says, trying to sound more confident than she felt.
“I know what you came here for,” says the Purger. “Now give me the filter.”
Teal feels her back touch the wall. There is nowhere else to go.
“I don’t care about what happens to me,” she says, breathing heavily. “I came here to save my mother. If you won’t free her, you can shoot me. I’ll have dropped it before you pulled the trigger.”
“You and I both know that’s a lie,” he says, narrowing his eyes. “Right now you are very afraid to die. And you need to realize this is much bigger than you or your mother. You could be putting countless lives at stake.”
“You take lives every day,” snaps Teal, her voice rising. “Wipe the blood off your own hands before telling me to be careful.”
The Purger laughs.
“Don’t pretend you know the game, kid,” he says, a demonic smile playing at his lips. “Because the ignorance will cost you.”
Outside, the sound of police sirens suddenly breaks the tension. The Purger’s smile fades.
“You called the police here?” he yells. “I never dreamed you’d be that stupid.”
“No,” she stammers. “I—I didn’t.”
The sirens grow louder. Teal can hear the screech of tires as the cars come to a halt outside the abandoned building.
“Last chance,” he says, taking another step towards her. “I don’t think you’re any good to your mother dead.”
Her mind races. Teal can’t let him leave with the chest. She may never see it again.
“Here,” says Teal, and throws the crystal into the air above the Purger’s head.
“No!” he screams. The Purger throws both the gun and the chest to floor and reaches his hands out in desperation.
Teal dives for the chest that lies near the Purger’s feet. She grasps it with both hands and rolls to get back on her feet. But she bumps into something. The Purger. She feels him trip over her legs. The Purger falls to his back, screaming in anger.
The room resonates with the shattering of glass.
Teal feels the Purger trembling on top of her. A sickening screech pierces her ears like needles. Dark mist forms at her fingertips. It is at first a small wisp, but soon expands into a poisonous fog. Soon Teal finds herself in darkness. A sickening and terrible fear causes her to scream.
Something claws at her face in the confusion. She feels the Purger’s hot breath on her neck.
“I don’t think you’ll ever comprehend just what you’ve unleashed.”
A gunshot. Hot blood flows from her body. Teal lays there, screams of hell torturing her senses. But her heart remains beating. The wails mingle with her own cries of grief as her world blackens completely.
****
Yay, my attempt at writing in present tense! I actually quite like it, it's like a friend I never had...or something.
Any and all comments are greatly appreciated. 
Good work!